Chiara Zorzi or Giorgio, also Clara or Claire (died 1454), was duchess consort of Athens by marriage to

Nerio II Acciaioli Nerio II Acciaioli (1416–1451) was the Duke of Athens on two separate occasions from 1435 to 1439 and again from 1441 to 1451. He was a member of the Acciaioli family of Florence, the son of Francesco Lord of Sykaminon, who was cousin to Anton ...

Duke of Athens The Duchy of Athens (Greek: Δουκᾶτον Ἀθηνῶν, ''Doukaton Athinon''; Catalan: ''Ducat d'Atenes'') was one of the Crusader states set up in Greece after the conquest of the Byzantine Empire during the Fourth Crusade as part of th ...

, and

regent A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...

of Athens during the minority of her son Francesco I from 1451 until 1454.

Life

She was the daughter of

Nicholas III Zorzi Nicholas ΙΙΙ Zorzi or Giorgi ( it, Niccolò) was the Marquess of Bodonitsa, a member of the Zorzi family of the Republic of Venice, from 1416 to 1436, though the title was purely nominal by then. Before becoming marquess in an exchange with his ...

, the titular

margrave of Bodonitsa The margraviate or marquisate of Bodonitsa (also Vodonitsa or Boudonitza; el, Μαρκιωνία/Μαρκιζᾶτον τῆς Βοδονίτσας), today Mendenitsa, Phthiotis (180 km northwest of Athens), was a Frankish state in Greece fo ...

, and renowned for her beauty. After Nerio's death, she secured her right to act as guardian of her son and thereby regent of the Duchy and had the Ottomans consent to it. Not long after she came to power, she fell in love with the Venetian Bartolomeo Contarini, who visited Athens, and asked him to propose to her. He explained that he was already married, but to make himself able to marry Chiara, he returned to Venice, and murdered his wife, after which he returned to Athens and married the regent, in 1453. As her spouse, he also took a share in her government. The Athenians were not happy about the Venetian influence, and complaints reached the Ottoman Sultan. Evidently, the citizenry mistrusted the two lovers' influence over the young duke, for whose safety they may have feared.

Mehmet II Mehmed II ( ota, محمد ثانى, translit=Meḥmed-i s̱ānī; tr, II. Mehmed, ; 30 March 14323 May 1481), commonly known as Mehmed the Conqueror ( ota, ابو الفتح, Ebū'l-fetḥ, lit=the Father of Conquest, links=no; tr, Fâtih Su ...

of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

intervened at the insistence of the people on the behalf of the young duke Francis, and summoned Bartolomeo and his stepson the duke to his court at

Adrianople Edirne (, ), formerly known as Adrianople or Hadrianopolis (Greek: Άδριανούπολις), is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders, ...

. Duke Francesco I was never heard of again. Another

Acciaioli The Acciaioli, Acciaiuoli, Accioly, Acciajuoli or Acioli was an important family of Florence. Family name is also written Acciaioli, Acciainoli, or Accioly, Accioli, Acioli and Acyoly in Portugal and Brazil, where there are branches of it. Descent ...

, the young duke's cousin

Francesco II Francesco II may refer to: * Francesco II Ordelaffi (1300–1386) * Francesco II of Lesbos (c. 1365 – 1403/1404) * Francesco II Acciaioli (died 1460), last Duke of Athens * Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua (1466–1519), ruler of the Ita ...

, was sent to Athens as a Turkish client duke and Chiara thus deprived of her power in the city. The new duke had Chiara murdered at

Megara Megara (; el, Μέγαρα, ) is a historic town and a municipality in West Attica, Greece. It lies in the northern section of the Isthmus of Corinth opposite the island of Salamis Island, Salamis, which belonged to Megara in archaic times, befo ...

. According to legend, the murder took place in the monastery of Daphni, the mausoleum of the French dukes, where he cut off her head himself while she knelt invoking the aid of the Holy Virgin, but this is a fictionalized version from a folk lore of the murder. Bartolomeo appealed to the sultan for justice. Athens was taken into Turkish hands, and Francis II deposed.

References

Sources

* *Setton, Kenneth M. ''Catalan Domination of Athens 1311–1380''. Revised edition. Variorum: London, 1975. 1454 deaths Female murder victims Women of the Duchy of Athens Chiara Year of birth unknown 15th-century women rulers 15th-century Italian nobility 15th-century Italian women 15th-century Greek people 15th-century Greek women {{europe-noble-stub